G.O.P. COLLEAGUES BACKING SPECTER IN JUDICIARY POST

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Published: November 19, 2004

Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican under attack by some conservatives as too liberal to lead the Senate Judiciary Committee, won the unanimous backing of the panel's Republicans on Thursday, a move that appears to guarantee that he will become chairman when the new Congress convenes in January.

The announcement, by Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the current chairman, came after Mr. Specter issued a carefully worded four-paragraph statement in which he promised not to use a ''litmus test'' to block judicial nominees who oppose abortion and hinted that if necessary he would support changing Senate rules to end the practice of blocking nominations by filibuster.

''He deserves to be chairman of this committee and he's going to be,'' Mr. Hatch said after Mr. Specter, flanked by eight of the committee's nine other Republicans, read his statement at a news conference in the Capitol on Thursday afternoon.

The announcement does not entirely settle Mr. Specter's future. The committee will not take a formal vote until January, when it is reconstituted with new members, and the entire Republican caucus must ratify the appointment. Nonetheless, Mr. Hatch said, ''It's a done deal.''

Thursday's declaration by the committee capped an intense two-week campaign by conservatives who flooded the Senate with telephone calls and faxes ever since Mr. Specter, a supporter of abortion rights, remarked that the Senate would be unlikely to confirm ''judges who would change the right of a woman to choose.''

Because the Judiciary Committee is the first hurdle for federal judicial nominees, including candidates for the Supreme Court, some conservatives worried that Mr. Specter could use the chairman's post to block judges who opposed abortion.

But Mr. Specter, a former prosecutor who was just elected to his fifth Senate term, waged a vigorous defense, lobbying his colleagues, giving numerous interviews and writing the statement he issued Thursday.

Besides promising not to use a ''litmus test'' to block anti-abortion nominees, he said in his statement that he had ''assured the president that I would give his nominees quick committee hearings and early committee votes.'' He vowed to consult his colleagues on legislation before the committee, including bills that would limit certain lawsuits, an issue he has not always championed. He promised not to use the committee to bottle up constitutional amendments, an allusion to the proposed amendment banning gay marriage, a measure Mr. Specter has said he opposes.

But perhaps the most significant part of the statement involved the filibuster, a tactic that Democrats have used to block some of President Bush's more contentious judicial nominees. A filibuster can be broken with 60 votes, but Republicans will have only 55 seats in the new Senate.

''It is my hope and expectation that we can avoid future filibusters and judicial gridlock with a 55-45 Republican majority and election results demonstrating voter dissatisfaction with Democratic filibusters,'' Mr. Specter wrote. ''If a rule change is necessary to avoid filibusters, there are relevant recent precedents to secure rule changes with 51 votes.''

Reporters asked Mr. Specter if he had been pressured into issuing the statement.

The senator insisted he had not and took pains to say that he was not taking a position on changing filibuster rules. ''I have not been pressured at all,'' he said at one point. At another, he said, ''If I do not act with independence, it will be the first time in my life.''

The statement cinched the support of at least one Republican senator, John Cornyn of Texas, who said he was comforted by what Mr. Specter had told him in person but wanted to get it in writing. ''It was important that there be a public clarification,'' Mr. Cornyn said.

Other senators said simply that they were persuaded by Mr. Specter's record, particularly his support for all of Mr. Bush's judicial nominees. ''At times,'' said Senator Saxby Chambliss, Republican of Georgia, ''it's been like a war zone over there in the committee room. And we've been in the trenches, and Arlen Specter has stood side by side and toe to toe with all of us in opposition to the antics coming from the other side.''

Mr. Specter is in line for the chairmanship by dint of seniority; Mr. Hatch must leave the post because of Republican rules that limit the party's senators to six years as leaders of committees. Bob Stevenson, a spokesman for Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader, said that by getting the support of all the current Republicans on the committee -- including Senator Jeff Sessions, the Alabama Republican who was opposed by Mr. Specter when he was nominated for a federal judgeship -- Mr. Specter had ''gone a long way towards securing his position as chairman.''

Mr. Specter's conservative critics seemed resigned to that outcome. When the news conference ended, the senator said he was headed to a meeting with three conservative leaders: Gary L. Bauer, the former presidential candidate; Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.

Afterward, Mr. Perkins issued a statement saying he hoped the senator would ''be true to his promise.''

Mr. Specter, a former Democrat, faced a tough primary challenge this year from Representative Patrick J. Toomey, a conservative Republican, but survived after Mr. Bush campaigned heavily for him. So conservatives viewed his remark about judges as a slap at the president.

After the news conference, Mr. Specter was asked if he was relieved that his ordeal appeared to be over.

''As part of the pay grade around here there are lots of problems,'' he said. ''You learn to develop a hide a little thicker than a rhinoceros.''